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By Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, June 1, 2020 The past weekend saw the start of an uprising in dozens of American cities, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets for peaceful protests and violent encounters with the police. The proximate cause was the killing of George Floyd , an unarmed, handcuffed African-American man, by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. In Minneapolis and other cities, police in riot gear have responded aggressively to protests and looting,...

From The Steve Fund, June 3, 2020 COVID-19 and the current national climate on race has changed the dynamics in many households. Sheltering-in is not easy in the best of circumstances, but it can be especially difficult for parents that have their college student(s) come home unexpectedly. Our panelists explore how they as parents are coping and embracing a full house again. They will share how starting new traditions have helped them build bonds with their children. Managing the mental...

Thursday, June 4, 2020 Education Upended, We're Back! Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of "A Better Normal — Education Upended". We bring bring our focus back to the future. Using our breakout session format, we will identify the strategies and lessons learned that we want to bring into the future of school, and ways in which we might do that. How do we create physical and psychological safety, especially in the face of so much uncertainty? What strategies can we use to...

We believe it is critical to acknowledge what is happening to our communities. From the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken many lives, to the systemic racism and inequalities that continue to deeply affect communities of color, we are seeing trauma in a multitude of ways. Our mission is to serve the U.S. Cooperative Extension System by partnering to make a greater collective impact and promote accessibility to all in communities across the nation. We are committed to fostering...

As the coronavirus upends lives, another public health crisis arises. New research shows eight times more people are under serious mental distress now When the novel coronavirus roared into the U.S., mental health took a back seat to physical health. The number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved. Schools closed, remote work became the norm, restaurants shuttered and getting together with friends was no longer...

Sean Hankins will be the special guest on the "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" radio program this Sunday evening at 8:00 pm Central Time. Sean Hankins is the Director of the MSU Adolescent Diversion Program (ADP). He has been the director and class instructor for over 20 years. The ADP program is a community-based program operating in conjunction with Michigan State University and Ingham County Family Court Division. ADP has been acknowledged as one of the top juvenile...

"Justice in America" is a podcast of which you may not be aware. It is hosted by Josie Duffy Rice, president of The Appeal, along with guest hosts Darnell Moore, Donovan X. Ramsey, Derecka Purnell, and Zak Cheney Rice. Each episode explains a new criminal justice issue and features conversations with experts and advocates. Some of the topics covered include: "The Privatization of Prisons," "School to Prison Pipeline," and "Probation and Parole." Here are quotes from the transcript of their...

My Story People say all the time that you don’t have to let your past, family or your childhood define who you are. I don’t believe that is necessarily a bad thing. I let my childhood define who I am by defying the odds. It was expected that when I grew up, I would be a teenage mother living in the trailer park. But that wasn’t the life for me. I am successful. Not because I am rich, but because I am not a stereotype. I rose above my circumstances and made my life the best it could be.For me...

n piece two of the series on eating disorders, we have already explored how dopamine and serotonin play vital roles in influencing eating disorders. In this article, we’re going to take a closer examination of what happens in the brains of those who live with the life-threatening problem of disordered eating. Two Types of Nervosa, What’s the Link? The term Nervosa means “lack of appetite” which is misleading but close to what happens when a person forms anorexia or bulimia. The Relationship...

People’s response to the great chasms of structural inequities glaringly laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic have been further inflamed by the murder of George Floyd and deaths of other African Americans in recent weeks. The acute emergency of the pandemic has eased, but the violence inflicted on racial minorities and now those who are protesting the inequities in our society has compounded the outrage. Right after the pandemic began running riot across the US, I often heard people ask: When...

Glass’s mission has always been to protect and foster the practice of nurturing children. That’s because she herself experienced at least five types of adverse childhood experiences, as measured in the original CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). If the scale could account for childhood adversity such as structural racism and community violence that’s more likely to occur in communities of color, her burden of ACEs is higher.

In his groundbreaking book , In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction , trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté writes, “There are almost as many addictions as there are people.” ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens read that quote as a springboard to asking Maté to define addiction and explain whether or not it is always rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Maté, along with filmmaker Michelle Esrick and Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond,...